Down by the River Side...
Great weekend as we went to Mississippi and ministered @ my parents home church. The highlight was to water baptize 2 young men, Cody and Casey Haygood, in the Amite River! I remember when my pastor baptized me almost 25 years ago... The Lord has been so good to me.


When we were in India last month we visited a ministry called TENT just outside Hyderabad, India. Training, Evangelsim, Needs and Technology is the acronmym. The cool thing about this compound/training center was it had a too scale replica of the tabernacle of Moses. The golden alter was just inside the walls reprenting the 1st place we must start @ to get into God's presence is the Cross. From here the brazen laver was positioned to wash ones self before proceeding into the Holy Place. The laver was full of water this is cool to think about ones reflection when you leaned over to wash. The washing of the water but the Word of God... the brazen laver represents water baptism! So powerful to attend and be apart of water baptisms. I love it... witnessing new believers public expression of faith as a Christ followers.
Going public is BOLD... For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth..., Romans 1:16! This too makes me think of the tremendous persecution and ostracization many new converts endure when they partake of water baptism in muslim, hindu and buddhist nations. The Bible tells us to partake in water baptism,total immersion, as a public confession of our salvation. Jesus led by example and the father was well pleased with him. I love it when the Lord is pleased with me!
DB:
Luke

Donkeys for Jesus...
Well we made it back from Sri Lanka and India in time for Mother's day. The family headed for the sanctuary of Amite County Mississippi to visit my mom and dad. Much to our surprise my dad's donkeys are having their babies. Dad and I were at the barn having a great conversation about our lives just being donkeys for Jesus.
Jesus asked for a donkey to carry him into Jerusalem. This is all we are suppose to do is carry him and present him to the world! Donkeys are sure footed, dependable, not easily spooked and all around good natured animals. We laughed as daddy fed each of them their "snack" of peppermints enjoying the sound of their ferocious crunch of the hard candy and their begging gentle nug for more of the sweet.
Also thought about the coolies in the Himalayas with their donkeys and the heavy loads they carry. God has called us all to carry Jesus to the world. The great thing is Jesus said his to take his yoke which is easy and his burden which is light. The best thing about being a donkey for Jesus is the great honor and privaledge to carry him to the world.
It is all about him... not about us!

Look to the Hills from where come my help!

We are in the Himalaya mountains gateway city of Mussoorie ministering this weekend and can I tell you it is a long way from Louisiana! Today we preached @ Kellogg Church @ 9000' elevation with the 25,000' peak elevation range in our backgroound. Mussoorie is an old hill gate city to the Himalayas which the Bristish established in the early 1800's. Still today this gate city is the entrance to Tibetan culture and many nomadic tribes of unreached people groups.
We were invited by Pastor Timothy and Missionary Jack Dyer to come to Mussoorie to prayerfully consider underwriting a hill station hostel for young Indian/Tibetan village children to be raised in a Christian enviroment then sent back to the villages to evangelize their respective people groups. Our first step will be for prayer then to purchase the land for $75,000US.


Conditions are a little tough here with the lack of water due to a small snow fall this year. Made me think of my kids when they were in school in South India and the strict rules of water conservation. The main rule being with the use of the toilet... if it is yellow let it mellow, if it is brown flush it down. Don't you dream of being here on the mission field of north India! The ride up here was 10 long hard hot hours up here and our A/C did not work! Thank God I am a country boy, hello!
Pray for us as we head back to Sri Lanka and the war problems there. Got to go...

Living in the FOG!
Wow what a blur the past two weeks has been... in preparation to go to Sri Lanka. Andy Ardoin from Healing Place Church, Nick Rogers and Shawn Pike from California have joined me to make a whirl wind of ministry and meetings in Sri Lanka and India. Sri is in turmoil again with lots of bloodshed and uncertaintity but God is faithful and everything about him is certain, Jeremiah 29:11!
We arrived today @ 6pm and hit the ground running in the FOG... I call this the Favor of God but most call this a serious case of jet lag. We went to our dear friends Loni and Monica Delanerol's wedding anniversary dinner with their family. I think Nick and Shawn were blown away by the Sri Lankan hospitailty and cuisine.

Tomorrow we are all scheduled to minister to differnet type churches in Sri so it will be some good stuff to tell about! I know you wish you were here... we will be here through May day holiday (May 1st) then off to India and the cities of Delhi, Hyderabad, Mussoorie and back to Colombo in less than a week. Talk about daylight burning... Please pray for us as we travel and work to advance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus.

Avoiding the Traps

My son Andy and I were in Fayetteville, AR for Easter weekend attending the University of Arkansas Srping football game. Andy was invited to AR junior day as he has gotten to be a pretty good size specimen of a young man and has gotten some college football schools attention (pray the Lord guides his path as we go thru this decision process). Anyway we got to play golf with some special people, Pastor Casey Henagan, Pastor Steve Dixon and Pastor Terry Nance who wrote the book "God's Armorbearer". Golf was never one of my favorite past times until the Lord asked me to take up the sport when I was in a small city in the mountains of Sri Lanka that had a golf course. I walked by the course doing my usual "golf bashing" and the Lord asked me to learn to build relationships. Well out of obedience I tried to play this crazy game and have grown to enjoy the beauty and complexity of the game.

While we were playing Terry Nance was seeming to get every shot in a bunker (that is what we commomly call a sand trap) and I said we need to learn to avoid the traps by directing our aim just enough to steer clear. This is easier said than done but Terry acknowledged this was good preaching material. I pondered this for a few days about avoiding traps and sterring clear of obstacles. The Lord was gently urging me to stay focused and obedient to his leading. Too stay kingdom minded and not Luke minded, hello! Jesus tells us to pray to not to be lead into temptation and to be delivered from evil. Basically we can be lead to avoid the traps that seem to come our way from the world and the enemy of our soul.

DB: Luke